After getting Jim his drink, Kathy went to the kitchen to get her husband to cook something up for Ed.

Ed’s stomach grumbled loudly at the mention of food and his mind started to drift off, imagining what she was going to bring.

“What are you lookin at?” The drunk man scowled at Ed.

“Huh?” Ed was brought back to reality, and found himself being confronted by a tall, wiry man. Before he could fully register what was going on, the man threw a punch at him.

Jim’s fist narrowly missed Ed’s cheek, causing Jim to stumble. “Stop moving you little shit.”

But I didn’t do anything. Seeing the second punch coming towards him, Ed leant back slightly, avoiding the fist by a hair. Jim’s fist slammed into the empty jug, causing it to shatter across the floor behind the counter. The music stopped as everyone in the room turned to look at what happened. While Jim was recovering, Ed hopped off the stool and tried to distance himself from Jim, but the area around the bar was too crowded. And now that the crowd had turned their attention to the fight, Ed found himself completely blocked in.

Jim chased after Ed, pulling him back towards the bar. Jim grabbed a glass, planning to smash it down on Ed’s head, but Ed grabbed his arm, stopping it mid swing. He slammed his shoulder into Jim’s chest, sending him crashing over a stool. The glass slipped from Jim’s hand and shattered across the counter.

Jim landed hard on his back. Groaning in pain, he turned over onto his hands and knees to try and get back up. Seeing an opportunity, Ed jumped on Jim’s back, pulling them both down onto their side. Wrapping his legs around Jim’s waist, Ed cinched his right arm around Jim’s neck. Hopefully this works.

Sliding his left arm into place behind Jim’s head, he made sure his right elbow was in line with Jim’s nose, then squeezed as hard as he could.

“What happened here?” Walking back out and seeing the mess behind the bar, Kathy yelled.

The cheering crowd immediately froze, before quickly dispersing. The band went back to playing their music as the rest of the bar pretended nothing had happened.

“Pricks, always here for the fun, but never want to help out after.” Mumbling to herself, she grabbed a broom and went around the bar to see if there was anything to clean on that side. She turned the corner just in time to see Ed release Jim from the hold and lean back against the bar. “Now what do we have here?”

Hearing her voice, Ed looks up at her, slightly embarrassed. “I can explain. It was a complete accid-”

“You don’t have to explain anything.” Kathy checked up on Jim. Seeing that he was fine, she whacked him with the broom. “Get up you lazy oaf. This is the third fight you’ve started this week.”

Jim woke up with a start, gasping for air. He looked back at Ed and scowled.

“Alright, that’s enough. Now get out of here!” Kathy shouted angrily.

Jim Scurried out of the bar, pausing for a moment at the door. “I’ll be back, I’m not scared of you!” Kathy raised her broom, to which Jim immediately fled. She turned back to Ed, offering him a hand. “Now let’s get you sorted out.”

Taking her hand, Ed lifted himself off the ground and looked around at the mess he’d caused. “Sorry about the mess. Let me clean it up.” He reached out for the broom.

She knocked his hand away “Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t the first bar fight I’ve had to clean up. And it’s far from the messiest. Now follow me.” She walked to the back while gesturing for him to follow.

He walked through a kitchen, eventually stopping at a small, rounded dining table.

“Your food will be done shortly, just rest here, I’ll be right back.” Kathy left to go and clean up the mess.

Left alone, Ed had no clue what to do, so he sat down at the table. Out of boredom, he found himself looking at the photos hung up around the room. The first photo was of Kathy and her husband standing outside of the bar with wide smiles and a set of keys dangling from her finger. The bar looked newer in the photo, and there were still signs of the construction that had taken place. Her husband was of a similar height as Kathy and was incredibly muscular. He had a set of horns that extended to the side before pointing up, and he had a big white beard that was neatly trimmed.

Following along the wall, all of the photos were of them outside of the bar, but with each new photo, their family grew bigger and older. The last photo was of them with their six kids, four of which had already become adults themselves, and two young ones hugging onto Kathy’s legs.

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“Lovely photos, aren’t they?” A gruff voice came from behind Ed. Snapping back to reality, Ed turned around to find the man in the photo walking towards him with a steaming plate of food. Setting the plate down on the table, the man took up the seat across from Ed.

Ed’s eyes focused on the juicy looking steak in front of him, but he held himself back from digging into it straight away. “Yeah. How old are your kids?”

Hearing the question, the man smiled. “The oldest there is Mimsy, she’s twenty-eight. Sally there is twenty-three, Victor is twenty, and Tom is eighteen. The young ones are Caitlyn and Johnny, both are six. They’re currently upstairs with Sally, otherwise, they would’ve already been pestering you. The name’s Arthur by the way.” Arthur reached a hand out to Ed.

Taking his hand, Ed gave it a firm shake. “I’m Ed. It sounds like you’ve got a lovely little family going on here.”

“Nice to meet ya Ed. I heard you already started a fight in my bar.” Arthur dropped his smile, staring directly into Ed’s eyes. There were a tense few moments before Arthur laughed. “Nah, I’m just messing with ya. Jim’s always starting something. I heard you really put him in his place.”

Ed breathed a sigh of relief as the tension in the room dissipated. “I’ve been in a lot of fights. You can only walk home bloody and bruised so many times before you learn how to defend yourself. Luckily, I had my grandpa to teach me everything.”

“Sounds like he was a tough man.”

“He’s an army vet, and still as strong as an ox.” He put his hand on his neck, remembering back to when his grandfather was first teaching him how to fight.

While they were chatting, Kathy appeared in the doorway. “We’ve got another order of ribs for table five!” She disappeared back into the bar.

“Welp looks like I’ve got to get back to work. Enjoy your meal. I’ll get Sally to run a bath for ya. We should have something that’ll fit you laying around somewhere.” Arthur went back to the kitchen, leaving Ed to his food.

Picking up his knife and fork, he cut into the steak, and watched as the juices spilled out of it. The steak looked absolutely delicious, and he couldn’t stop himself from digging in. The flavour exploded in his mouth, and he felt his body filled with a pleasant warmth.

Eventually, the bar had quieted down, and Kathy was finally able to catch a break. The three of them sat around the table. Freshened up and in a new set of clothes, Ed found himself sitting across from Kathy and Arthur.

“Now that we’ve got some time to ourselves, I bet you’ve got a lot of questions floating around that head of yours. We’ll try our best to answer them.” Kathy said

Where do I even start? “Well, I know you said that I’m in Hell, but where abouts are we, exactly?”

“That’s right, you just got here. I should probably start from the top. Darling, go get the map.” Kathy said, while Arthur left the room briefly, coming back with a scroll. He rolled it out on the table, revealing a map of Hell. “As you can see, Hell is made up of seven circles stacked on top of each other. We are on the Pride circle, which is the bottom one here.” She points at the lowest level on the map. “Going up, we have Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and finally Lust. Now normally, a sinner will spawn in the big city, but for some reason you’ve spawned out in Limbo. Luckily, you weren’t too far from us here in Balestone, otherwise who knows how long you would be out there for.”

Ed looked at the map, taking in all of the information that he could. Seven circles, each named after the seven deadly sins. That makes sense. I guess where sinners appear depends on which one their sin falls under. “What do you mean by Limbo? I can’t see that on the map.”

“Well, each ring actually spreads out forever. And as the population in hell rises, we just build out further and further whenever we need more land. That’s why only the big cities are marked on the map.

But to answer your question, anywhere beyond where someone has built is known as Limbo, but some people call it the Abyss. If someone has committed a relatively minor sin, their soul will appear as a ghost and will be left to wander in the Abyss for all eternity. Only souls weighed down by truly heavy sins will appear in a physical form, like yourself.”

“Wait, hold on. I haven’t done anything worthy of being here-” Several faces flashed through his mind. John, Nico, Josephine, Adrian. Dozens of faces, each belonging to someone he had previously sent to Hell. Maybe she’s right.

Kathy and Arthur looked at each other, before patting Ed on the shoulder encouragingly. “Whatever you’ve done in the past doesn’t matter. You’ve got a second life here, and you have all the time in the world to make up for whatever you did.”

“Thanks, I needed that.” If I can’t die here, then what does Buddie want me to do? Is he really just going to make me suffer here for a while, or is there something else going on here? Either way, I might as well check out the big city. Ed looked at the map, noticing that the major city shared its name with the level of hell it was on. “How do I get to Pride City?” He asked.

“There’s a train station on the other side of town. If you take it to Craghollow, you can teleport from there to Pride City. That’s the fastest way to get there.”

That’ll probably cost a lot. I saw people paying for their stuff with coins earlier. “Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it, but it’s probably very expensive, and I don’t have anything on me.”

Arthur thought for a moment, leaving the room before coming back with a plain wooden box. “Normally I would get Victor to do this, but he isn’t feeling well. I’ve got an old friend who lives in the centre of town. If you can take this to him tonight, you can take a cut of the money, which should be good enough to get you to Pride City with some cash to spare.”

Ed eyed the box cautiously. “What’s in it?”

“Just some medicine for the old guy.” Arthur stuffed the box into Ed’s arms.

This sounds suspicious, but it’s probably my best option for making money quickly. “Sure thing. Where does he live?”

“Like I said earlier, he lives in the centre of town. It’s a bit difficult to get there, so take this.” Arthur hands him a note. “It’ll tell you how to get to his place from here. He hasn’t seen you before, so he’ll probably be a bit suspicious of ya. The note should make him ease up a little, so don’t lose it.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back here as soon as I’m done.” Ed hoisted the box under his shoulder, slipping the note into his pocket.

“Stay safe out there.” Arthur said while patting Ed on the back.

“Mm. I will.”